Portrait Photography To fulfil your preliminary brief, you must include at least four images, one of which must be a medium close-up shot.

Shot Distances – Wide Shot The subject takes up the whole frame, with some “safety” room at the top and bottom. Because the subject can’t take the height and width, there is a lot of extra space to either side which detracts focus from the subject.

Shot Distances – Medium Shot The subject is framed from the waist or knees up, with a tiny amount of safety space at the top of the shot. The subject is usually centred to ensure they are the main focus.

Shot Distances – Medium Close Up This is half way between a medium shot, and a close-up shot. The subject is framed from the chest-up, again with a small amount of safety space at the top to ensure the subject is nicely positioned. This ensures the viewer focuses entirely on the subject and not on the background.

Shot Distances –Close Up This shot focuses on one particular part of the subject, usually the face. It excludes any other body parts, and therefore excludes clothing or hand-held props. Depending on the camera equipment used, and the settings, a wide aperture will often be selected to focus on the subject’s face and to blur the background.

Why are Medium and Medium Close-up optimal shot distances? Clear focus on the subject(s), excluding unnecessary background Opportunity to manipulate mise-en-scene, but without detracting focus from the subject’s face Opportunity to include props (e.g. accessories in a fashion mag, instruments in a music mag)

Mise-en-scene Literally “putting on the scene” in French, it refers to everything in front of the camera, so the model, their clothing, the lighting, jewellery, etc. When framing your shot you need to consider what you want your audience to see: do you want them to focus purely on the model and their pose, or will there be other elements to consider?

Representation through mise-en-scene The mise-en-scene of your shot is important as it is representational. What do you want to connote through your image? What colours could your model be wearing that mix well with the theme or genre of the magazine?